Friday, August 5, 2011

Hobo With A Shotgun (2011)

Hobo With A Shotgun

Written by John Davies

Directed by Jason Eisener

Hobo...Rutger Hauer

Drake...Brian Downey

Abby...Molly Dunsworth

Rutger Hauer is the titular hobo who jumps off the train at the end of the line, hoping to earn enough scratch to start his own lawn care business. But he finds his new hometown overrun with crime, ruled by Drake, a sadistic mobster, and his two doofy sons in matching letterman jackets.

Our homeless hero mostly observes from a safe distance until he befriends Abby, a not-so-happy hooker who ends up on the wrong side of the Drake crime family. Next thing you know, he's giving up his lawnmower money in favor of a shotgun. And he's determined to clean up the streets, one shell at a time.

The interactions between Abby and the hobo are surprisingly intimate and heart warming, which is in direct contrast to the over-the-top violence and characterizations that populate the rest of the film. And I do mean over-the-top. Hobo With A Shotgun is essentially a Troma movie with better production values. That's going to be a good thing for some people, and a bad thing for others.

This is another branch on the family tree that began with the Grindhouse double-feature. And while the original fake trailer which this feature was based on better captured that sleazy 'seventies feel than movie that it eventually became, Hobo With A Shotgun was always entertaining...even if it was usually ridiculous.

The introduction of The Plague (an armored pair of hooligans--possibly demonic in nature) kind of ruined the final third if the film for me, as it steered it into out-of-character dimensions. But if you're in the mood for mindless and bizarre hyper-violence, but aren't willing to read Japanese subtitles, then this may be just the movie you're looking for.

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